Thanks for visiting our Sustainable Agriculture Showcase page.

Unfortunately, no farmers have shared their stories with us.  That doesn’t mean they’re not sustainable – it means this is new and they’re reluctant to put their hands up.  We’ll take more time to get this right next year, so we can share with you the many things Derwent Valley farmers are doing to support their natural and human resources.

Thanks again, and have a great day at Hamilton Show.

Sustainable farmers: share your story at Hamilton Show!

The Hamilton Agricultural Show Society in partnership with the Derwent Catchment Project (DCP) would like to showcase farmers across the Derwent Valley and Central Highlands who are working hard to increase the resilience of their farm business. This might be:

• Soil: Having year-round ground cover in pastures and cropping fields to reduce erosion and increase rainfall infiltration, or managing to reduce the need for fertilisers
• People: A change in systems or culture you’ve introduced to improve wellbeing and reduce the risk of accidents
• Native shelterbelts/revegetation projects: Planting natives and/or managing remnant vegetation to improve biodiversity, reduce runoff and provide shelter for livestock
• Economy: New, profitable farm enterprises that support more local jobs and businesses
• … or anything else you are doing that reduces risks and inputs, to improve the long-term resilience of your farm business.

By highlighting the positive action farmers are already taking, we want to:

• Make sustainable agriculture everyday agriculture, by encouraging farmers to share knowledge and learnings with other farmers about how sustainable agriculture is just good business
• Raise awareness and recognition in urban communities of the work farmers are doing to manage
  complex farm businesses so they’re environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.

How to participate?
Just email eve@derwentcatchment.org to tell us what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and the results
you’ve seen.

That’s it!

Ideally this will be a short video of you telling and showing us what you’ve done, but before and after
photos or a few words in an email will also be great – whatever is easiest for you.

How will this information be used to promote sustainable agriculture?
Our plan is:

• Put your videos and photos / words on a Sustainable Agriculture Showcase page on the Hamilton Show website, with a QR code around the showgrounds for people to easily view the page on show day
• An interview with Eve or Peter from the Derwent Catchment Project at the bar (yes, we will shout you a drink of your choice – this will be a friendly chat with a microphone!) about what you’re doing and why.
  

Next year, we want to make the Sustainable Agriculture Showcase bigger and better. For now though, we want to keep it as simple as possible for farmers to tell their story to as many people as we can.